A fine to the Senators and Nick Cousins sparks a Battle of Ontario off the ice

Maple Leafs’ Simon Benoit collides with Senators’ Nick Cousins along the boards during Game 3 in Ottawa, on Thursday, April 24, 2025. Photo by Adrian Wyld /THE CANADIAN PRESSArticle content

Who turned in Nick Cousins?

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The Battle of Ontario has never needed any rocket fuel.

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It hadn’t lived up to its billing, with the Senators trailing the Toronto Maple Leafs, leading 3-0 heading into Game 4 on Saturday night at a raucous Canadian Tire Centre with the home team facing elimination.
The Senators spent the hours before the game focused on trying to stay alive, but the indications are the Leafs weren’t just happy with taking Ottawa to task on the ice; the club also wanted to score a victory at the National Hockey League’s head office as well.

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There are differing accounts as to how the NHL’s headquarters became aware of Cousins sending a puck in the direction of Toronto goalie Anthony Stolarz in warmup before a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 3 but we’ll probably never know.

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The league reacted by slapping a $25,000 fine on the Senators while Cousins also had to dig into his jeans to pay a $2,083.33 fine that will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

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Cousins wanted to focus on trying to help the Senators find a way to stay in the series on Saturday night, so he politely declined an invitation to speak to the media before the puck was dropped with a promise he’d address the matter after the game. Understood.

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Listening to Ottawa head coach Travis Green and his Toronto counterpart Craig Berube, both laughed off the incident as nothing more than gamesmanship between two buddies.

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Cousins and Stolarz won a Stanley Cup together last spring with the Florida Panthers, and, by all accounts, they respect each other and are friends.

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Green called it the “game within the game” on Friday and added that “it probably happens a lot more than you think.”

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“I don’t really have a reaction,” Green said on Saturday. “The league handles things the way they see fit. To be honest, it hasn’t come up once in our room. It’s a zero, non-factor. Nothing. And, yet I understand what the league is doing, but from our standpoint, it’s been more of a talking point for other people than some.”

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We’re told by league executives that, normally in this situation, Toronto general manager Brad Treliving would pick up the phone to call Steve Staios, the club’s president of hockey operations and general manager, to ask him to tell Cousins to cut that out.